Waite Park Breaks Ground on New Public Works Site

WAITE PARK -- The Waite Park Public Works department will soon have a brand new building.

The city held a ground breaking ceremony this (Thursday) morning for the new 65,000 square foot facility.

Public works director Bill Schluenz says they've been planning a long time to get to this point.

"Staff have been working over a year on this, visiting a number of public works facilities, bidding process and here we stand," says Schluenz.

The new public works facility will be located at County Road 137 and 17th Avenue South, near Quarry Park.

Schluenz says the lack of work space and storage is what ultimately led them to designing a new facility.

"We had a small spot about the size of a normal garage for staff to work in, and most of stuff had to sit outside because we just didn't have the room for it to fit inside," says Schluenz.

The new public works facility will have several office and meeting rooms, cold storage facility, maintenance bay, an indoor truck washing system, on-site fueling system, and salt storage.

Schulenz says they hope to begin construction in the next few weeks and be officially moved in by next October.